Making a complaint
Our staff will do whatever they can to make sure you receive the highest standard of treatment. But there can sometimes be misunderstandings or you may not be happy with your treatment, and you will want to let us know.
Here we explain your options. We treat every complaint seriously and aim to resolve them as quickly and fully as possible. Making a complaint will not affect your future care or treatment.
Talking it through
If you have concerns about any aspect of our service, please approach a member of staff in the department or ward and they will try to put things right as soon as they can. If you are on a ward, the best person to speak to is the ward manager or senior nurse on duty. If you are an outpatient, you can ask for help at reception when you attend your appointment.
What if I am not satisfied?
If you are not satisfied, you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). They may be able to help resolve problems or give you useful information.
Make a formal complaint
If the PALS team cannot deal with your concerns or you want to make a formal complaint, you can do this in the following ways:
- call the Complaints Department on 020 3299 3209
- email kch-tr.complaints@nhs.net
- write a letter to the Complaints Office. The postal address is:
Complaints Office
King’s College Hospital
Denmark Hill
London SE5 9RS
So we can process your complaint letter or email, it would be helpful if you could include:
- your full personal and contact details such as date of birth, address, phone number(s) and patient hospital number.
- a full description of your concerns. Please state dates, locations and name(s) of staff involved, where possible. If you are raising more than one concern, it is useful to number each of the different points you are making. This helps us to make sure we answer all of your concerns.
- what your expectations are and how we can resolve your complaint.
If you are complaining on behalf of someone else, we may need to get their authorisation confirming that they have given permission for us to provide you with details of their care. We will send you a form to complete.
After you have made a complaint
We will acknowledge formal complaints within three working days. We will carry out a full investigation which we normally aim to complete within 25 working days. But if your complaint is particularly complex or involves a number of different specialists or services, we will contact you to agree an alternative schedule.
If it is appropriate, and you agree, we can arrange for you to meet with the clinical teams involved in your care to discuss your concerns. We may also agree to ask an independent clinician to review the patient records and provide a report on the care we provided. The Chief Executive sees every complaint made and will write to you once our investigation has finished.
If you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, or if we cannot resolve your complaint, you have the right to appeal to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and ask for a review of your case.
More information and advice
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
If you are not satisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, or if we cannot resolve your complaint, you have the right to ask the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to review your case. The Ombudsman is independent of the NHS. We will send you further details of this process with our responses to your complaint.
Further support
The following services can provide independent, free and confidential information and support to people wishing to make a complaint about the NHS:
POhWER’s NHS Complaints Advocacy Service